Suddenly, Stanford is out of the Top 25 and needing to beat Notre Dame to put the proper finish on its best football season in eight years.

Those are the effects of losing the Big Game, and Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh still was kicking himself Tuesday, three days later, for two play calls he made in the 34-28 loss to Cal.

The first came on a fourth-and-eight at the Stanford 23 with fewer than four minutes left. Harbaugh's second-guess was not to punt — many think he should have — but to give quarterback Andrew Luck a better play.

"I don't think we gave Andrew a great play for that situation," Harbaugh said Tuesday, referring to the pass that failed. And, with 90 seconds remaining, and Stanford at the Cal 13, Luck threw two passes to the end zone, the second resulting in an interception. Harbaugh wishes he had called another option on first down.

"That is what I am kicking myself about," he said.

So Stanford is 7-4 and needing to rebound Saturday in the regular-season finale.

"Eight-and-four is staring us in the face," Harbaugh said. "We've got to go get it."

Harbaugh wasn't surprised that Stanford fell out of the Associated Press Top 25 one week after vaulting 11 spots to No. 14 with its victory at USC. Four losses, Harbaugh said, doesn't make the cut. No team with four losses is in the Top 25.

"A lot is based on win-loss records," Harbaugh said. "The undefeated teams are the top teams, the one-loss teams come next, and the two-loss and three-loss."

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He continued: "We lost a game. We didn't lose our integrity. We didn't lose our confidence. We didn't lose who we are as a team. We've got to man up and move on."

His staff has tried to keep the players focused all season no matter the circumstances.

"Not getting emotionally hijacked," Harbaugh explained. "Not over a game, not over a play, a series. You have to be very coldblooded how you move on."

Tailback Toby Gerhart added that the team has a chance to enhance its reputation with the nationally televised broadcast against Notre Dame.

"Thank God last week wasn't the last one," he said.

Gerhart, who has set school rushing records this season, could return for a fifth year because he played only briefly in 2007 before a season-ending knee injury. Gerhart will make a decision based on an NFL evaluation after the season.

"Ideally I'll have two more big games, then the combine, to get me in the first round" of the draft, he said.

One of the most glaring measures of Luck's difficult day against Cal involved three fumbled snaps from the shotgun. Beeler, the center, said he and Luck each took a share of the blame.

"I was probably a little quick on my part," Beeler said. "One was a little low, one a little to the right. I don't know if it was something I was doing."

Beeler said Cal's three-man front played a role in disrupting Stanford's rhythm. The Bears put a rusher over center, forcing Beeler to block quicker than usual. That resulted in short snapping, he said.

Teammates tried to console Luck after his 10-for-30 performance and one big interception.

"We said, 'You can't be upset,' " Beeler recalled. "The aggressive character that led you to make that throw is what put us where we are today. We'd rather have you make that throw than not make it."